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Queen stopped Margaret being regent

Revealed: law was changed to make Philip regent in event of monarch’s death

The Queen personally intervened to ensure that her sister Princess Margaret would not rule as regent in the event of the monarch's death, documents kept secret for more than 50 years have revealed. Instead, she ensured the role went to the Duke of Edinburgh.

According to the papers, "the Queen's wishes" were that the law should be changed so that Prince Philip would become regent in the event that she died without an adult heir. Philip, it was noted, would have regarded it as an "affront" if Sir Winston Churchill's government did not agree to the change.

The monarch's moves to boost her husband's status in advance of her coronation in 1953 are disclosed in the notebooks of Sir Norman Brook, cabinet secretary from 1947 to 1962. The jottings are released today at the National Archives in Kew, west London.